Futaleufu Partners
At a Glance
The cap-table seat you want if mentorship is the bottleneck you fear most; the trade is access, since staying small is the whole point.
- Pricing
- Custom Pricing, Investment terms, not fees: search-fund economics per the model's conventions; nothing is published.
- Best For
- Traditional searchers who want the model's deepest operating mentorship on the cap table and accept a deliberately small, selective fund to get it
- Track Record
- Run by the author of Stanford's original search-fund course; 40-plus funds backed.
- Lane
- Traditional
- Funds
- The search phase and the deal
- Based
- United States.
- Invests
- No investing scope on the pages this review read, so ask whether it will look at a search where you are.
- Buys
- A front page and an investments list pairing searchers with companies, which is evidence of activity. Its Walking the Talk essay is about the firm's own posture and names no size, sector or structure it will fund.
- Before A First Call
- A front page and an investments list pairing searchers with the companies they bought, under an invitation to send a message that asks for nothing in it.
- First-Time Operators
- An investments list pairing searchers with the companies they bought. The pairing is the whole of what it publishes about them.
- How Long The Search Runs
- No length on the search and nothing about what happens if it ends without a deal, on the pages this review read. Ask what the clock is before you sign anything.
- Published Terms
- No check size, stake or fee on the pages this review read. Most firms on this shelf publish none, so ask early rather than late.
- What A Searcher Gets
- Not published on the pages this review read. It is the figure a searcher most wants and most of this shelf does not print it, so ask before the first call rather than after.
- Roadmap Stages
- 1. Learn & Choose Your Path3. Set Up & Fund the Search
Deals It Has Backed
Purchases this firm's own pages evidence, from the Search Acquisitions Record. Not a portfolio: a deal joins that record only when two independent parties have published enough to verify it, so this is the part of the firm's work that can be checked rather than all of it.
- Thillens · Resit Melik · 2025
- Maher Services · Daniel Chase and Laurent Firlotte · 2025
- Desert Services · Tim Haitaian · 2024
- Spivey Services · Wade Chipps · 2023
- Sunscape Landscaping · Nick Seger
- United Pet Care · Aaron Oaks
- The American Institute of Balance · Carlo Arroyo
- Léargas Security · LJ Campbell
- Paragon Legal Group · Trista Engel and Jessica Markowitz
- CITTA Brokerage · Scott Sorenson
- Advanced Aircrew Academy · Jordan Huibers and Alvin Wong
- Emission and Cooling Solutions · Troy Beebe
- No-IP · Suchit Rout
- gFour Marketing · Felipe Ros
- APA Medical Equipment · Tommy Shelton
- Pelvic Health Solutions · Beixi Li
- AdComp Systems Group · Murdoch Miller
- Travelmax · Malcolm Collins and Simone Collins
- Energy Ogre · Taylor Mattingly and John Watson
- Spanish Schoolhouse · Evan Meehan
Pros and Cons
Pros
- The founder helped invent the model and has backed over forty searches since
- Seventeen operator-LPs are recruited specifically to mentor and join boards
- CEO Boot Camp, a searching webinar series, and a CEO accelerator come with the check
Cons
- Deliberately few deals a year, so selectivity is the product and access is the constraint
- Terms and check sizes are not published
- A mentorship-first pitch is hard to weigh from outside until you are in the room
What Searchers Say
Active searchers routinely list the firm on their investor pages, and the founder's course material and books are staples of the searcher canon.
How to Approach
Firms do not publish a term sheet you can prepare against, so this is how traditional (investor-backed) search capital comes in, what it weighs, and how to arrive ready.
The Typical Arc
- A first conversation on your background and why search, before any deal.
- A deep dive on your plan: industries, criteria, and how you will source.
- Backing for the search itself, then a fresh underwrite when you bring a live deal.
- A board seat and governance once you close.
What It Weighs
- Whether you will finish a two-year search, not only start one.
- The quality of your thesis and target criteria.
- How you will behave on a cap table over a long hold.
How to Prepare
- Bring a sourcing thesis, not a blank slate. Buyer Profile Builder
- Know which firms lead versus follow, and on what terms. Investors
- Make your operator case on one page. Buyer Profile Builder